Tara Johnson Email & Phone Number

Minneapolis, Minnesota, Us

San Jose, Ca, Us

Lead Gifts & Home Decor category marketing. Responsible for brand strategy, positioning and go-to-market campaigns to drive engagement and revenue growth.

St. Louis Park, Minnesota, Us

Project-based work to support Marcomm rebranding efforts.

Medina, Minnesota, Us

Built and managed end-to-end global owner marketing and communication campaign strategy and plan for on-road member community experiences and management. This included oversight of brand performance marketing: direct mail, email, digital and owner loyalty. Led team of 3 and was responsible for program and strategy promoting a motorcycle-inspired life - a national program supporting group rides, events, merchandise, digital content & relevant offers, including curated magazines just for owners and program materials for dealers. An always-on multi-channel communication approach was essential in creating authentic relationships with owners and prospects, including: social media management, monthly newsletters & emails, new owner welcome packages, as well as member portal content and merchandising management.Efforts resulted in increased membership renewal (+20%), meaningful Owners Group penetration across US-based dealer network (~80%), and increased e-comm merch/apparel sales based on strategic pricing (+50K).Served as Motorcycle digital transformation lead responsible for brand website and email strategy, user experience and personalization to drive engagement and lead flow via CRM. I was also responsible for direct mail strategy and execution consisting of exclusive offers and events to drive dealer traffic and sales conversion.Ultimately our team was focused on increasing and shortening owner repurchase cycle, driving long-term value and retention as well as optimizing lead flow for Indian Motorcycle and Slingshot brands. Working with not only my core team and business unit, but broader enterprise to leverage and advance digital and 1:1 capabilities to drive differential results.

Medina, Minnesota, Us

Led brand experience & consumer loyalty strategy to drive differential growth across Indian Motorcycle and Slingshot brands. Led a team of 5 with budget oversight to achieve goals. A critical part of my role was advancing our customer first strategy internally and with our dealers, and did so by building and leading the Indian Motorcycle customer connection team - setting vision and strategy, resulting in strongest brand recommendation NPS score to-date, outpacing corporate goal by over 35% (+15 pts). Developed, facilitated and led multiple cross-functional business unit trainings and best practice sharing to impact customer-focused mentality and infuse action in day-to-day work of colleagues at all levels of the organization. To educate and train our dealer network and team members on new products and sales processes, I created custom video content, flipping the model to showcase customer insights and benefits instead of specs only.Accelerated growth of our Owner Groups by launching Slingshot Owner Group and meeting annual goal of established Clubs, while increasing Indian Motorcycle Groups at dealers nationwide by ~25%. Led always-one evaluation and optimization of owner group benefits to drive renewals and lifetime value to grow loyalty and retention.Drove brand awareness and sales among key growth segments by partnering with key influencers to drive engagement, across social media and deliver impactful grassroots events to increase affinity for products

Minneapolis, Minnesota, Us

Led corporate partnership strategy to uniquely position General Mills brands and drive differential growth across our categories & brands. I gained valuable experience managing business risk & opportunities as well as leading strategic negotiations and managing partner communications on behalf of our brands, including planning and finalizing key promotional deal points ranging from packaging commitments to media, PR & influencer support. I was accountable for finalizing a myriad of multi-million dollar partnership deals in a highly competitive theatrical & toy space. Internally, our team was tasked with advancing the partnership platform cross-functionally (brands & sales) to deliver a productive partnership for all key stakeholders & brands, with goal of driving large scale event merchandising and revenue growth.

Minneapolis, Minnesota, Us

Led strategic customer growth segment, spearheading a cross-functional team responsible for developing, implementing and orchestrating a Regional marketing plan for multiple brands across Operating Units. From consumer insights to product portfolio decisions to local market brand strategy & execution to program measurability, the highly orchestrated multi-million-dollar plan included experiential sampling & storefront events, influential digital and social content with focused media strategy, placements and promo.The team managed through significant change in strategy from a broader consumer driven plan to a focused retail driven plan to garner greater local market amplification in-store. We leveraged ROI & consumer insight data to optimize overall consumer plan brand and activation recommendations to secure engagement and deliver clear sales goals: incremental distribution & merchandising. Our team developed an agile approach, collaborating with sales, brand marketing and agency partners to drive plan alignment as well as creating and managing consumer activation and communication.

Minneapolis, Minnesota, Us

Led centralized team for innovation, thought-leadership, partner/vendor relations and best practices. Developed and recommended to Senior Leadership and brands a first-of-its-kind GMI USRO Sampling capabilities / innovation framework and working toolkit, encompassing sampling beliefs, principles and best practices, resulting in greater program innovation and efficiency / effectiveness. Created and advanced scale sampling capabilities for the organization to leverage, including a partnership with IHeart radio for shelf-stable sampling at historic low cost/sample (~50% cost decrease)Managed an annual multi-million- dollar price promotion strategy for Snack portfolio brands to meet sales and brand objectives. As well as managed and trained the cross-functional execution team responsible for delivering new integrated promo system and new agency execution & management. Led efforts to reduce enterprise-wide costs, including coupon process time savings of ~20% with zero cost implications, while delivering over $1MM in coupon savings negotiations with strategic partner.

Minneapolis, Minnesota, Us

Managed integrated marketing programs for National retail customers. Partnered with Sales & Consumer Insights to bring holistic and dynamic merchandising opportunities for General Mills brands to Target/Drug & Dollar for shared strategic advantage.During my tenure, I owned a unique cross-category opportunity with Target Pharmacy buyers to bring consumer packaging promotion to life within relevant store platforms, resulting in incremental ad placement & merchandising for Big G Cereal (Cheerios), and sold-in exclusive Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards program at Target, garnering incremental merchandising & ad placement as well as unlocking media opportunities with Nickelodeon.While in role, I was invited by Target to serve on an exclusive Hispanic 2020 task force to build their Hispanic mission, vision and strategy, where I partnered with key executives and delivered meaningful insights and ideas to shape in-store and out-of-store consumer experience.

Minneapolis, Minnesota, Us

Initiated and executed end-to-end Cereal Event Strategy. Managed theatrical and toy partnerships to deliver custom premiums in select packages and surround media support, creating consumer fun and driving scale events at retail. Drove double-digit merchandising growth on half of annual merch events (incremental sales lift ~+44% Walmart) Optimized Division Events plan through quantitative analysis and rigor, resulting in right number of premiums and collectability, as well as ~25% cost savings through alternative sourcing for TV spot. Launched and orchestrated social media experimentation leveraging new digital marketing platform Café Mom to deliver authentic content and position influencer marketing as a powerful consumer marketing lever.Initiated, developed and drove integrated marketing campaigns and life stage-based programs across Snack brand portfolio: Nature Valley, Fiber One, Chex, Bugles Created strategic road map and developed activation ideas for Nature Valley brand campaign “Save the Trails,” in partnership with US National Parks, positioning brand in white space for future growth and differential partnership. Led partnership negotiations with University of Minnesota to create unique, insights led program for the Chex Mix/Bugles brands to connect with consumers at key life stage and tie brand directly to snacking moments.

Minneapolis, Minnesota, Us

Brand Public Relations Manager-Big-G Cereal & Snacks Operating UnitsAsst. Brand Public Relations Manager-Corporate Events, Big-G Cereal & Snacks Operating Units Brand Public Relations Specialist- Big G Cereal, Meals, Baking and Yoplait Operating Units Led brand-building Public Relations initiatives to drive brand awareness and engagement. Managed a myriad of brands, leading communications and activations including: experiential & media events, social/influencer outreach, trade shows, celebrity negotiations & engagements, media relations, crisis communications, content creation and distribution.Led marketing/public relations strategy and execution, including unique content creation, to bring champion Olympic athletes, Apollo Anton Ohno and Joey Cheek, into the Wheaties family at the 2006 Winter Olympics. The event garnered over 1 billion media impressions, reinforcing “Breakfast of Champions” brand positioning and boosting sales. Drove strategic plan and leadership alignment to deliver a groundbreaking influencer outreach program for the launch of Fiber One bars; recognized by leadership for innovative efforts in the social influencer space that contributed to successful product launch of new bar platform and overall sales increase.  Negotiated & managed first multi-brand endorsement deal with key food + lifestyle influencer.